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| Senator Ojudu |
Senator Babafemi Ojudu is one of the aspirants for the ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the forthcoming governorship election in Ekiti State. In two different interviews conducted ahead of the primary, Ojudu speaks on his aspiration, his hope and why he is the best of the 33 aspirants in Ekiti State deserving of the APC ticket.
Sen Babafemi Ojudu Excerpts: How prepared are you for the APC primary ahead of the July governorship election? I will say it is quite encouraging, very interesting, stimulating and we are ready to do battle. To do battle in the sense of winning the souls of Ekiti people. Governor Fayose has been saying there will be a repeat of the 16-0 defeat of the APC.
What is your take on that? If there was 16-0 then, there will be another 16-0 in the coming election in favour of APC. Is it true you are planning to use federal might? No, we don’t do that. You all witnessed the election in Anambra. Did you see federal might or federal power? You have witnessed elections everywhere, President Muhammadu Buhari, the leader of our party and president of this country, does not believe in federal might.
He will tell you ‘go and work.’ If today, I contested with his wife, Aisha, he will not raise a finger in favour of his wife. He will probably advise her on what to do to win the hearts of the electorates. You sounded as if the incumbent governor won’t be a factor in this election, why are you so optimistic? He is going to be a factor, but he is going to be a factor of failure.
What about his stomach infrastructure programme which has endeared him to the people of the state? There is no longer stomach infrastructure again. It is a myth. People have not been paid in 12 months. Salaries have not been paid; civil servants and local government officials have not been paid. You are talking of stomach infrastructure if I am a civil servant and you have not paid me in 12 months, what is stomach infrastructure in that? If truly, you are doing stomach infrastructure, you must regularly pay the workers so that they can feed themselves.
This last Christmas, he didn’t even give them rice as he used to give them. It is a government of deceit. Fayose is just deceiving the people. Go around with him now; nobody hails him anywhere again. I am his husband. The Yoruba people have a saying that the mad man has a master. In 2006, I chased him out of this place. I took all his lawmakers who were members of PDP; I took them to Lagos for two months.
I kept them there. When I was ready, I brought them back to impeach him. In 2011, he contested against me for Senate; I defeated him. I had 68,000 votes; he had 21,000 votes. So, forget about all these myths he sells to you out there. I am back again, and I know I am the one who can chase him out. If there is anybody he fears, it is me. We will take care of him on July 14.
If Fayose who is outside government can defeat an incumbent, what arsenal do you have to defeat him now that he is in government? Mind you, he is not contesting; but even if he is contesting, I am telling you now that I have defeated him many times over in the past. If somebody is an incumbent and I was not a politician then, I was a journalist like you, and I was able to impeach him.
Also, I was not an incumbent; I defeated him in a Senate election. I am telling you that I am the one who is capable of defeating him and I will defeat him again. I can tell you this too. I am from a constituency that if you don’t have, you don’t win in Ekiti State. If you have my constituency, you will win. From 1999, whoever Ado- Ekiti supports becomes the governor. Whoever Ado- Ekiti does not support is taken out of Government House. I am from that community.
That community has never had somebody as governor before. They have always conceded deputy, but now they are saying ‘we want to be governor,’ and they are ready for that. From traditional rulers to market women, to workers, to NGOs, to our party members, they are determined and have decided that this time around, an Ado Ekiti person must be governor, and they are ready.
Right now, if you look at it, Fayose is demolishing houses all over. Nobody has done anything to him. He will wake up from Government House and call bulldozers to demolish houses without prior notice or compensation. These are houses that are not on the road. What has happened to him, nobody knows.
But I think, and I suspect that it is because the people of Ado have removed their support for him and he wants to punish them before he leaves. What are those things you desire to change if you get to power? There is hunger here. People are hungry. If you go round and see the faces of our people, you will see that they are malnourished. We should not be malnourished in Ekiti State.
APC as a party, do you think considering the problems in the country, your party is electable? APC is electable. I am standing before you as an accomplished journalist, as someone who has been in the Senate, who is now working in the presidency, that APC is electable. What you are seeing is what you see when change is about to happen. It is said that your party in Ekiti is not united? Don’t worry about that. We are a party with an agenda and goals.
Our people are tired of being outside of government. We regret what happened the last time. We don’t want it to happen again. We will take government and be friendly with the people. We will take government and do what they want. We will take government and sustain the government so that we can build very solid foundation and whosoever comes after can build on it. Our leaders at the national level and those in South-West have committed to organising a free, fair and credible primary.
Two days ago (last Friday), we met with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Aremo Segun Osoba, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and the Vice Chairman, South-West, Chief Pius Akinyelure, all the aspirants were there except a few, and we had a very useful discussion on the need for a transparent primary. If it is transparent and it is free and fair, all of us would queue behind the winner of the primary.
Our people are poised to take over government here, all of us are victims of bad governance here, and so it is incumbent on us to put our best person forward for this purpose and win the current election. Being one of the Leaders of APC in Ekiti State and given the large number of aspirants jostling for the party’s flag, would you lead the initiative for a consensus candidate? As at now, till the primary is over, I don’t see anybody stepping down for anybody.
People have bought forms worth N5.5 million, we had to pay to the party another N2.5million, people have set up offices, they have set up structures, appointing coordinators everywhere, it’s too late to ask people to step down, except if they want to do it out of their own volition or free will.
To say you want to do consensus and compel people, it won’t work. There is agitation by the people from the Southern part of the state that they should be considered for the governorship seat. What is your take on this? While I sympathise with them, I believe that the constitution of Nigeria and that of our party recognise the right of every citizen of the state to offer to serve the state.
Ekiti is a peculiar state; it is homogeneous, Ekiti is not like Ondo, where you have the Ilaje, Owo, Ondo, Akoko, and Akure; here what they are talking of is geographic; it is not ethnic, and that geography itself is faulty.
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